With a strong tradition of research and a long history of producing graduates who successfully pursue careers in science and engineering, City College is uniquely positioned to become a research center of excellence in the biomedical field. Building on the infrastructure already in place, CCNY can move quickly to the forefront of modern cell and molecular biology with the resources of an RCMI grant. With minorities making up 64% of the undergraduate majors in related areas, the college will be able to increase minority representation in both the faculty and graduate student body in this area. This proposal outlines research activities in the life sciences at CCNY in three cluster groups: (1) Proteins and Membranes, (2) Developmental Neurobiology, and (3) Gene Expression. The faculty describe their ongoing research, their future goal and what it will take to stay current and move forward. A program of significant faculty recruitment, enhancement of support services, important equipment acquisitions, and development of new facilities is proposed. To support and further these goals the addition of two neuro-scientists, two eucaryotic geneticists, a molecular biologist, an immunologist and an NMR specialist is proposed. The emphasis in recruitment will be on the exploitation by faculty of various aspects of recombinant DNA and hybridoma technology. Cell culture facilities, oligonucleotide synthesizing equipment, wide-bore NMR, FT-IR and ORD-CD spectrometers are needed to attract and support the research of the new personnel and enhance the capabilities of the current members in each cluster.